BIGGERFASTERMORE's Blog

Posted Nov. 13, 2012   1182 views

Ramp Camp- bike ramps for the Playa

This year, the house's contribution to burning man was bike ramps. The goal was to make ramps small enough that they were relatively safe, but large enough to give a little thrill. The result was 10 ramps that lit up at night, and had lips that were 8-12" high.

Here's how they looked at night. The lights were either solid or blinking

The ramp at night

We started with a prototype, and tested out all of our ideas here. Its coming together in this photo. The EL wire is stuck into the routed channel with hot glue.

the prototype coming together

After a night of jumping the ramp in the street with our own bikes, we decided on the final design. We all felt like 10 year olds in this picture. Extremely happy 10 year olds.

jumping the ramp

The amount of wood we bought filled the car almost exactly.

full of lumber

Making 10 ramps, production style. Here we're routing the channel for the EL wire

routing the chevron shapes for the el wire

And routing it along the bottom where the batter packs go...

routing the el wire along the bottom

Finally getting some paint...

painting the ramps

And they're finished and out! They were jumped by tandems, unicycles, and all sorts of bicycle. They've only been out a day in this picture and they're already getting dirty.

the finished ramps, already dirty